PRPD PREP: TRIPLE A RATINGS • “WORLD CAFÉ” HIRES A “CANADIAN HEAD-BANGER”

Next week the PRPD Content Conference happens in Phoenix and I am already prepping even though I won’t be attending. I thought it might be helpful to provide the most recent Nielsen Audio ratings information for all subscribing Triple A stations. In a few words, the State of Triple A is pretty damn good!

Jim McGuinn from 89.3 The Current is convening the Triple A Format Group meeting from 4:00pm – 5:30pm on Wednesday 9/21/16.

First lets look at stations in PPM markets comparing estimates from June 2015 and June 2016. Of the 18 stations for which data was available for both years, 12 stations (67%) gained weekly listeners. The biggest percentage gainer was KRCL, Salt Lake City (up 34%).  The biggest numerical gainer was KCRW, LA (up 197,000 weekly listeners.  Keep in mind that KCRW also airs NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things considered.

Next we have two charts showing Triple A station weekly listeners in Nielsen Audio diary markets. Eight of the 11 full-time music stations (73%) gained new weekly listeners from Spring 2015 to Spring 2016. At dual-format stations, half of the stations gained weekly listeners.

CANADIAN TASTEMAKER TALIA SCHLANGER JOINS WORLD CAFE

Talia Schlanger

Talia Schlanger, a multimedia Canadian personality, is joining WXPN’s World Café as a contributing host and producer. Schlanger is widely known in Canada for her work as a host/interviewer/writer for CBC radio and television. Most recently she was host, writer and producer of CBC Radio 2’s Weekend Morning, and interim host of a Canadian national music show Canada Live.

Schlanger has received a number of awards for her work including the 2014 Canadian Screen Award for producing CBC Music’s The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions. Beetle Roadtrip was a TV, radio and online tour across Canada meeting local musicians and other personalities.

A "PROFESSIONAL HEAD-BANGER"

Schlanger’s background reminds me a little bit of another Canadian woman who went on to worldwide fame: Alanis Morissette. Like Morissette, Schlanger started in the biz as an actress, singer, and TV personality. She toured the US and Canada in the theatrical version of Green Day’s American Idiot, was part of the Toronto production of Mamma Mia and Queen’s We Will Rock You.

For Schlanger what she has loves the most in music. In 2014 she told a Toronto weekly newspaper [link]:

“I’m a huge music nerd – whether listening to it, reading Rolling Stone or NME, talking about it on the radio, or performing it myself. I still pick up the guitar or sit down at the piano whenever I can [but] most importantly [I am] a professional head-banger.”

Schlanger will start her new gig on October 3. She will join World Café host David Dye with interviews and reviews. She will contribute segments to the podcast World Cafe Words and Music.

World Café, which is nationally distributed by  NPR, will celebrate its 25th anniversary in the coming year.